MEDX Inc. could have been fined as much as $20,000 at a hearing scheduled for today, but the reduced penalty was imposed because the dumping was accidental, said Joe Harden, enforcement chief for the Broward Environmental Quality Control Board.

"It was not deliberate -- the container fell off the truck," Harden said. "The penalty was within the parameters of what would have been sought at the hearing."

The environmental board's files show that eight glass tubes of blood were found in September near a trash bin at Humana Medical Plan in Plantation. The medical waste originated from another Plantation medical facility, National Health Laboratory.